‘Toon In: Wu Hanqing of Vasoon Animation

Founded in 1992, Vasoon Animation has grown to be one of China’s most promising animation studios. CEO Wu Hanqing gives Agenda the scoop on their vision of the future of Chinese animation.

How did you get involved in the animation business?
It started as an interest. We were a bunch of people who enjoyed watching animation, but eventually watching was not satisfying enough. So we started to think we should make some ourselves. That was the beginning of Vasoon.

When Vasoon started in 1992, no one on our team was a professional animator. But our goal from the start was always to make animation as professional as the international ones we like best. “Best Chinese” will not be good enough for us.

Our strengths from the beginning were planning, playwriting, directing, an understanding of technology and art and so on. We have core team members with years of experience in the film industry, who instruct their craft at universities.

Eventually, we landed several big projects for CCTV, BTV and China Film Group Corporation, which we produced completely ourselves – including the planning, editing, direction and design. This is one of our company’s features – we specialize in producing original animation from start to finish, not just subcontracting editing and enhancements, although our skills in these areas already meet the standards of high-tech products on international market.

Please describe your studio’s animation style, or range of styles.
We have been successful in working in various styles. For example, we’ve done comic realism with Kuibo (魁拔) series, modern realism with Ksitigarbha (地藏), a cute style for younger people with Flying Monkid (飞天小猴王) and a Chinese modern painting style for God Hunters (神猎).

Our styles vary because our different directors and designers are capable of working with different styles of animation. Our production department is also competent with a range of styles and technical demands.

If there is anything that these animations have in common, it is that they all aspire to present happiness, emotion and true life. It’s easy to understand what is meant by conveying happiness and emotion, but the real trick is to create an existence in our works that is outside of reality, but feels just as real.

To do this, all the characters and the narrative format must convey a sensible worldview and plentiful details, which convinces the audience think it’s all real. All the best animations have a very strong sense of this, like Spirited Away and Avatar.

What are the most important elements to create engaging animation?
Imagination, judgment, craft, patience and love. And of these, the most important is having love in your heart. Only people who love animation know what an audience will think, and will work diligently to come up with engaging stories, and never tire of striving to ensure that the final product is as good as possible.

To be honest, making good animation is a lot of trouble. If you don’t like animation, you would be scared away by all the difficulties very early on. But if you are passionate about it, you will find all the challenges are opportunities. Each time you conquer a problem, you will improve your skill and experience, and the result is that more people will appreciate your animation.

One very important reason, I think, that we are able to produce the works that we do at Vasoon is that we try to engage these challenges. For example, the troubles of making Ksitigarbha and Kuibo can scare a lot of pros away, but to us they are essential steps for our progress.

Who is your all-time favorite animated character?
My favorite character is Manji (蛮吉) in Kuibo (魁拔). He is my hero, a Chinese idol. I have always wanted to create a brave, righteous, funny character, but China didn’t have it. So we decided to create it ourselves.

What are some of your favorite animated works, and what did they teach you that you’ve been able to apply to your work at Vasoon?
There are so many excellent animation works, such as Spirited Away, Ghost In the Shell, EVA and on and on. I could never list them all. But the most important thing we have to learn from them is the spirit behind it. The spirit is not to be afraid of trouble, to do everything the right way until it is perfect. This means that every detail has to be right and every ounce of imagination has to be expressed right.

Some say Chinese animation lacks imagination, but I think foremost the problem is a lack of assiduousness. Many people didn’t actually understand Ghost In the Shell, but still it’s a great work of animation. Why? Because it is all executed correctly.

Up to now, what have been your most popular productions?
Probably, to date, our most popular production has been Flying Monkid (飞天小猴王). Although the concept is adapted from The Journey to the West, it tells the old story of the brutal monkey in a new and fresh way. The series runs 74 episodes, which have been showing on the Kaku Cartoon channel since May 13
.

Actually, every work of ours has a clear target audience. Every animation our studio has produced to date has garnered popular following, and been praised as “among the best domestic animation so far.”

Kuibo (魁拔) and Ksitigarbha (地藏) are constantly eliciting disbelief that they were made by Chinese people. I want everyone to know that these two animations are made by Chinese people who have never been abroad. International producers in the USA and Japan have been very interested in these products, and we look forward to their being properly attributed to audiences all over the world as Created and Made in China.

What exciting projects does your studio currently have in the works?
Kuibo (魁拔) is composed of 156 episodes for television and five features for the theater.

It fabricates a total fictitious world. The protagonist is an orc fairy Manji (蛮吉). As a heroic youngster, Manji travels a long way with Man Elder to fight Kuibo – a hole in the universe, a biogenic anomaly feared by all demons and gods alike.
But the twist is that actually Manji is Kuibo. So how can the kind, pure Manji defeat himself? How will he face his evil identity?

Ksitigarbha (地藏) is a 90 minute animated feature that we currently have in production, scheduled for release in 2012. In contrast to Kuibo (魁拔), this movie is executed with a highly realistic aesthetic.

God Hunters (神猎) is also a 90 minute animated feature. It shows the coolest and most popular character from The Journey to the West – the handsome Monkey King – to the audience from a fresh angle, an experimental vision of the postmodern era. It will differ distinctly from Japanese and Euro-American styles and represent a modern Chinese animation style.

What does the future of the Chinese animation industry look like? What will be Vasoon’s place in it?
The market for Chinese animation industry is vast and has lots potential for development. You will have your share if you take it seriously, work with passion, follow the market needs and meet market standards.

Vasoon’s aim is to be the best studio in this market and make the best animation – to be the best in China.

That said, Vasoon’s main target is the global market. We wish to improve ourselves, expand our market and become a player on the international scene.

Is Beijing a good place for an animated character to live? Why or why not?
Yes. Beijing is magical, there are so many changes every day. Beijing also has a very deep culture, so that everyone can find things of interest. Beijing is also tolerant, capable of absorbing and adjusting to the abnormal.

I can imagine that if Manji, for example, came into our lives suddenly, he would surprise everyone around him, no matter which Chinese city he found himself in.
People would gather around him, staring: “Hey, why is there a kid like this walking on the street. He looks so strange.”

But that wouldn’t happen in Beijing. People would think he was cute, rather than focusing on his strangeness. In regard to his odd looks, people might think he comes from an unknown race. That is the tolerance of Beijing.

Every new friend is an animation character from somewhere far away. So we welcome everyone who visits Beijing to pay a visit to Vasoon!

To see online clips of Vasoon studio’s animation see www.vasoon.com